Magical Songbook

A wonderful surprise has appeared in our mailbox – the long-awaited debut album by Princess Chelsea, Auckland’s most majestic Star Wars-loving synth mistress. Designed by Brad Fafejta to look just like the Disney books from your childhood, Lil’ Golden Book features all the songs that have pricked our ears, conveniently piling all the familiar tunes in the front of the album for easy acquaintance. We were won over long ago by ‘Machines of Loving Grace’, played air piano to ‘Yulia’ and of course loved ‘Monkey Eats Bananas’. Now the story is complete, with the 11 track album creating a colourful escapist fairytale. The lyrics are printed in the inlay book so you can even sing along to the songs. The album gets a proper polish from Jonathan Bree’s production, and it’s good to hear that Chelsea’s crisp vocals are still the centre of attention. It’s home-recorded music that far exceeds the DIY reputation in sound quality.

Lil’ Golden Book will be officially released on May 2 by Lil’ Chief Records, and will be pressed on pink vinyl in the US. Chelsea’s kindly given us the premiere of the video for ‘Ice Reign’, a strange, voyeuristic and minimal take, that you can watch below.